


Freak of Nature

by Charlie_Parker



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Reader goes by many different names
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 22:51:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14681121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie_Parker/pseuds/Charlie_Parker
Summary: Peter Parker meets a peculiar girl at NYU. Is she a super or just plain weird? And who is she really?





	1. Chapter 1

It was coming up on a year that you had been attending NYU. Starting over really felt like starting over. You had imagined you would arrive and it would be slow for maybe two months tops. After that, friends would pour in and having ramen for dinner in your dorm would be the exception rather than the rule. Needless to say, your expectations hadn’t been lived up to at all. Party after party, mixer after mixer, endless midnight escapades never dulled the lonely ache in your chest. Even during your nightly activities, your crime-fighting proclivity never turned up a partner much less a side-kick. How apt it was then that you’d been given an invisible moniker: Spectre. Ghosts didn’t have friends. Ghosts didn’t get seen.  
Because of this social dry spell, or in spite of it, you found yourself at the local underground club, taking a break from rolling the hero boulder up a hill. You had a lifetime to rectify your past life’s sins. All you could do now is feel the bass of the music throbbing the inside walls of your skull and the sweet burn of whatever was in your drink slide down your throat.  
Eyes closed, hips moving in rhythm, soft colored lights making a pink aura about your movements, and a red plastic cup gripped in your hand like a lifeline; you looked mythical to the person across the crowd who stood there dumbfounded from the single glimpse he got.  
“You gonna stand there all night?” A hand clasped over his shoulder. A guy from Peter’s Intro to Molecular Composition class stood next to him, looking at the crowd.  
“Uh, y-yeah,” Peter spoke nervously, not meaning what he said.  
“Suit yourself, but she’s dancing alone.”  
Marcus left Peter’s side, having found someone to go meet in the crowd. Peter’s gaze left you for a second to look down at his shoes and when he looked up, the figure behind you caught his attention in a very different manner. Was that guy glowing? “Like a fucking glowstick?” Peter murmured to himself, tilting his head and trying to figure out if this was a trick of the party lights.  
You felt someone brush past your shoulder quickly, head kept down but you recognized the familiar blue crackles of electricity radiating from him. Hadn’t this guy given you the slip a few nights ago in a back-alley a street down from Times Square? “Hey!” Your hand reached out to touch his shoulder and pull him back. He turned around and looked at right into your eyes, but all you stared into was a blinding orb of sparks shaped like a face.  
“Can I help you?” His voice came out crackled, realizing your expression was one of reconnaissance “Nevermind. I was just leaving.” The way he ran was jumpy like he was getting small shocks to the legs every ten seconds. You didn’t have time to realize he had started running but gave chase anyway, disturbing a jagged path through the crowd of boozed up college kids.  
Peter had no idea what was happening. All he saw was glowstick man getting chased by Pretty Dancing Girl, and she didn’t seem to look too friendly. Now usually when he saw this sort of thing, Spider-Man took it upon himself to minimize the profiling and stop the person who was giving chase first. So this is obviously what he did now. The only problem was that he wasn’t Spider-Man right now. He was Peter Parker. Some quick thinking brought him to grab you by the forearm from behind, timing it to the millisecond. You got yanked back and your target disappeared out of the club “What the fuck?” You turned back to look at the boy and tried to shove your arm away but his grip was strong. “Are you with him?” You asked, fully turning to look at this guy who was for all intents and purposes an unassuming presence.  
Peter was keenly aware of the attention you were both drawing. “Let’s go.” He said through gritted teeth and pushed forward through the crowd with you in tow.  
You were not about to be towed like dead weight under any circumstances. “Yeah, that’s likely.” You spoke under your breath and Peter looked back to see you had disappeared. In shock, Peter let go of your arm and suddenly found himself getting dragged by the ear to an alley exit of the club. How had you disappeared behind him and reappeared in front of him with the upper hand?  
Before he knew it, Peter’s back was pressed against the brick wall and you were up in his face. “Who was that? What does he want?” Your voice was firm and Peter was kind of definitely jealous of how intimidated he felt because of it. Why did he need a special mod on his suit to do that?  
He sputtered out “L-look, P-pretty Girl, I don’t know. Fuck! I don’t know!”  
“Excuse me?”  
“I saw you chasing some dude! Some fucking glowstick dude! And I was like...who chases a-a glowstick man? So I stopped you.”  
“Are you serious?”  
“Y-Yeah! Can you...can you stop choking me?”  
You looked down at your hand and realized it was pressed against the base of his neck. Moving back, you looked at Peter and tried to size him up. “Did you call me Pretty Girl?”  
“Maybe, yeah.” He shuffled his feet and looked around the alley “Aren’t you cold?”  
“Not my main concern right now, if I’m being honest.”  
“That’s cool. So...do you have like powers or something?”  
You shrugged and leaned against the wall across from him “Yeah, I guess. You?”  
“Uh…”  
“Oh come on. No way some little dude like you has a grip that strong.”  
“I’m not little.” He muttered under his breath in a small whine.  
You dug through your pockets and took a cigarette pack and lighter out “You want one?”  
“Aren’t those dangerous?”  
“Kid, I’m literally radioactive.”  
“Yeah, but still,”  
“So no?”  
“No, I’m good.”  
You laughed a little “So what are you? An accident of nature or human error?”  
“Human error.” Peter laughed a little at that too “Lab accident. You?”  
“Born a freak of nature.”  
“Like the X-Men?”  
You stiffened like a board and checked down the alley again for a possible threat “Xavier sent you?”  
“What? No! I’m just Peter. Peter Parker.”  
“The kid with the Stark internship?”  
“How do you know that?”  
“We have a few classes together. I overheard you. And your face was all over the campus paper when Stark came for his address.”  
“Right. Who are you?”  
“What do you want to know?”  
“Your name.”  
“Which one?”  
“The one...you use. Do you really have to be all cryptic because I can’t see your face?” He moved his hand in a swat to get rid of the cigarette smoke, getting a little annoyed.  
You told him the name you were using currently: “Alice Harper.”  
“How come I’ve never heard of you?” Peter asked, stepping closer to you.  
“Are you always this rude with pretty girls?”  
“I’m just trying to figure out...why were you chasing Glowstick?”  
You nodded and threw down the cigarette, stomping it with your heel. “He goes by Electro. He’s got a knack for siphoning off electricity from public power grids. That brown out a few nights ago at Metro General was him. Don’t worry, Parker,” You stepped closer to him and fixed him with a steely gaze “I’m the good guy here.” You moved away and pulled out the second cigarette of the night “Enjoy the party for me, okay? I’ve got to go to work.” You walked away down the alley “I’ll call you if I need you.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Special guest appearance by everyone's favorite chimichanga hoarder

Peter was in Theoretical Particle Displacement 201 when his phone buzzed with a text from you. To him, the number was unknown, literally because you had somehow masked the number from his phone. The text read off an address and then ‘Bring donuts. ~Alice’. Peter’s first thought was ‘Who signs off texts with a tilde?’, the second one being ‘How am I going to get out of this class?’. He looked around for a clock and cursed to himself when he read the one hanging on the wall. It was thirty minutes to the end of the seminar. “Ned,” Peter whispered, leaning over to his friend. He’d chosen to go to NYU, turning down major offers, to stay closer to his family and friends. “Buddy, I need to slip out.”  
Ned’s eyes shined like they always did when Spider-Man was asking for his help. “Now?”  
“Now now.” Peter confirmed, eyes dodging around to make sure they weren’t causing too much of a distraction.  
“Give me a minute.” Ned nodded. Within a quarter of that time, Ned’s nose was bleeding profusely.  
“Oh, dude.” Peter said and managed to escort Ned out of the seminar, being waved off with approval by the professor. When they reached the hall, Peter asked “How did you do that?”  
“What? You’re telling me you can’t make yourself have a nosebleed?”  
“What?! No, Ned, no one can. But that’s not important. We are so reconfiguring our Halloween costume plans now.” Peter looked giddy.  
“Please don’t make me be Eleven.”  
“We’ll talk about it later.” He clasped Ned’s shoulder and smiled with a nod “I gotta go. See you later!” Peter began running, trying to figure out where the closest donut shop was on campus.  
The face that opened up the door to Alice’s dorm room was definitely not Alice. Peter thought it looked like if a Taco Bell Doritos Loco Taco had shat itself inside out.  
“Gen! Your donut munchkin is here!” The face called over his shoulder and in Peter’s stunned silence, it took the bag of donuts from his arms.  
Alice walked over and hit the thing’s shoulder “Wade, let him in.”  
“Oooh, what is this? A booty call?”  
“With you around?” Alice scrunched her nose in disgust and swiped the bag from Wade’s hand. She turned to Peter and said “Peter, Wade Wilson. Wade, Peter Parker.”  
“Okay.” Peter said, his voice dying in his throat.  
Wade moved aside to let Peter walk in and leaned down to the college kid’s ear and spoke gravely “Seriously, kid. I’ve got nanny cams everywhere up in this dorm. You so much as fingerblast her and you’re going into the meat grinder. You know who Hannibal Lecter is? This’ll be like his wet dream.”  
“Like from that super old movie Silence of the Lambs?” Peter asked, smiling a little.  
“Hell yeah, Little Drummer Boy.” Wade slumped back into the desk chair and looked at you. “So run me through your plan.” You threw him a donut and he caught it across the room. Unfortunately he caught it in his fist and it crumbled to nothing. “Fuck.”  
“Just get a napkin, you big baby.” You rolled your eyes and looked at Peter “Make yourself comfortable.”  
Peter nodded and sat on the mattress with you, looking over the computer screen on your lap “Woah, is that street camera footage?”  
“Yeah. And that’s our Glowstick Dude.” You paused the video just before a flash blinded the entire footage. The video showed the light emitting from something the shape of a man similar to the one from the club.  
“I thought you said his name was Electro.”  
“Glowstick Dude is cooler.” You nodded and glanced at Peter, in a better mood than the last time he saw you “Thanks for the snacks, by the way.”  
“Yeah, no problem.” He nodded and blushed furiously when his thigh touched yours.  
Wade suddenly gave a loud, pornographic moan from his chair “Yes, thank you Peter for the ‘nuts. I’d make sweet, sweet love to you if you were of age.”  
“Dude, I’m 19.”  
“Are you sure?”  
“Don’t mind him he’s just here for my showerhead.” You nudged Peter’s shoulder with yours.  
“You have amazing water pressure.” Wade confirmed  
“So what’s the plan?” Peter rubbed his hands together anxiously, looking between you and your laptop screen.  
“Okay, so you know how brownouts and blackouts have been occurring more frequently and the power grids from which they’re coming from have been higher in capacity?”  
“Yes and no, but sure, okay.” Peter nodded and took a bite from a doughnut.  
“So I think our Glowstick Dude is either testing his capacity– how much he can take before shit hits the fan for him, or he’s growing. Kind of like some weird take on the story of Tantalus. He craves more power but every time he gets it, his appetite widens for more so he’s never satisfied. This leaves a few questions, right? If it’s Situation 1, why is he testing his capacity and what is his limit if he has one at all?”  
“Because if he has a limit, then we can beat him.”  
“Exactly! It wouldn’t be difficult to lure him on to a power grid he can’t handle and cause him to short-circuit. But, if it’s Situation 2, we have to wonder again if he has a limit at all and whether or not he’s increasing his capacity on purpose and if so, why.”  
“You think he’s working with someone else?”  
“I’m not sure, but there’s been increased criminal activity and disturbance complaints around the power grids that failed a few minutes before and after the power outages. If he’s working for or with someone, it wouldn’t be too difficult to reason why. New York produces so much energy, the person capable of harnessing all of it would be a god.”  
Peter nodded, biting the inside of his bottom lip before asking, “So how come you haven’t been able to see any accomplices on the street cam footage?”  
“Glowstick blinds the camera. They work at night and the light he radiates is getting brighter, so all the camera picks up on is that. I keep sending letters to tell the city council to invest in better cameras but with the Avengers running around, any investments made to policing and security seems unnecessary to them.”  
“You write to your representatives?” Peter asked, a teasing smile on his lips. This badass chick wrote actual letters to politicians.  
“Obviously, Peter. The Hulk isn’t going to fix gentrification.” You rolled your eyes.  
All Peter could think of was how darned cute you looked dismissing his taunts. “So,” Peter cleared his throat “Have you traced the complaints and crime record locations?”  
“Beg your pardon?”  
“Well, if crime reports and disturbance complaints increased at the location of the power grids, they must have moved after Glowstick Guy was done. Unless they have a teleporter, they must have moved to somewhere else after. If you look at different spikes of complaints following the power outages, you could map them to find some sort of meeting place.”  
“That…isn’t at all a stupid idea. It’s a long shot, since the area around the grid would be out and the delay in police presence would delay the report times, but it could just work. Wade, any thoughts?”  
“Yeah.” Wade had moved to be laying across your desk chair bridal style “Did you stop buying Caribbean Coconut?” He smelled his wrist and made a small face “I smell like Tahitian Vanilla.”  
“Yeah, I meant the plan. They stopped making Carribbean Coconut.”  
“You guys should be fine. Call me if you live, alright? I’ll be at the usual spot, devastated by the end of Caribbean Coconut.” Wade made a phone sign with his hand, shot Peter a look as he stole the box of tissues off of the desk, and made his exit from the dorm.  
“Well that’s encouraging.” Peter sighed nervously and rubbed his thighs “Anyway, I should get going too, I have a class in thirty.”  
“Hold on a sec.” You put the computer away and turned to face Peter directly. He looked so nervous, alone in Pretty Girl’s room.  
“Y-yeah?”  
“What do you do, actually?”  
“What do you mean?”  
“What are your powers?”  
“Oh, uh, I rather not say.” Peter fidgetted, standing up with his bookbag slung across one shoulder.  
You rose a brow and stood as well, crossing your arms, “Pete, do you want to help me take down Glowstick Dude?”  
“Yeah, of course.”  
“Then I need to know what you do. I can’t form a plan if I don’t know what you do.”  
Peter sighed, pursing out his lips as he looked around the dorm, “So you need to trust me, that’s what you’re saying.”  
“Well, yeah. In part. If you don’t trust me with knowing your powers, how can I trust that you have my back?”  
“Okay then, answer me this. Why did Wade call you Gen?”  
“Peter, -”  
“Tell me. Why did Wade call you Gen? Because I thought your name was Alice. Tell me this, Alice, who the fuck are you? How come you can get into street cams and my phone? How come I’ve never heard of you before? What’s your deal?”  
“It’s a long story.” You tried to keep your voice calm. Peter was only going to get more worked up.  
“A long fucking story, huh? Well, guess what, so’s my story. So when you want to start telling yours, you know how to find me. I’ve got a class to go to.” Peter took his jacket and stormed off, leaving you alone in your dorm with a cold bag of donuts and the door still shaking from his slam.  
Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed a small shining object on the bed where Peter had sat. You picked it up curiously, pressing a button on it accidentally when you did. A red light shot out of the end of the object, a red and black display of laser light displayed on the ceiling.  
“Hello, Spider-Man.” You smiled up at the friendly neighborhood hero’s logo.


End file.
